FISHING AT THE INNER GORDO BANK
AND CONSTRUCTION AT LA PLAYITA BEACH

Jan. 12, 2007, Paul Roos, San Jose del Cabo fishing, Baja California Sur, Mexico:

I fished today with my boat partner, Rick Bennett, on our super panga, "Sumarlin," with Captain Miguel Banaga, out of Playita beach in San Jose del Cabo.

We went straight to the Inner Gordo Bank and fished among a half-dozen boats. The water was a greenish blue and around 70 degrees. We caught lots of Barrilete right off the bat and cut up a bunch for chunk bait. A stray Dorado, a little one, came aboard, on a sardina, about 9 a.m. A nice 8 pound Huachinango came up and bit a chunk bait off the bottom around 10 a.m. All but one other boat took off by 10:15. The Barrilete went away about 10:30 and at around 10:45 one of the surface chunks took off on my rod while I was stuck on the bottom with a yo-yo jig. Rick picked it up, set the hook, and it turned out to be about a 35 pound tuna which took him 20 minutes to get to gaff.

While he was fighting the tuna on my rod, his rod, with a Shimano 30 2-speed reel, also with chunk bait, started clicking-off and Miguel set the hook. About 15 minutes later, I gaffed another tuna of around 35 pounds. The other panga left on the water also caught a tuna and that was all the tuna caught by the fleet that day.

We tried for Sierra in front of San Jose's La Laguna fishing area on the way home as we had seen shore casters catching them from the sandy beach on the way up to Punta Gorda. No luck for us and after 15 minutes trying, we left for the barn.

Miguel butterflied the Huachinango and his family and I ate Huachinango Relleno con Camaron, Red Snapper Stuffed with Shrimp, at his condo that night. Yum!

A note about Los Cabos beach developments due to construction of Puerto Los Cabos on the Baja California shore near San Jose del Cabo: The palapa for the Mijares Fleet, brokered by Tomas Cantor, has been demolished and a new smaller one built closer to the water. About 100 feet of land between the water and the marina harbor border has been scraped clean for development and the pangas on the beach are now crowded even closer together than before. Parking is very limited unless you have a 4x4 to get across the sand. If you don't have one, you may wish you had come to the beach via taxi or were dropped off by a friend.